


looking at you (seeing forever)

by weareonceinalifetime



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Friends to Lovers, Liam POV, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, do not ask me to write fluff because i either turn it unbearably angsty, i am so sorry this is awful, or write something so ridiculous that it's guaranteed to get you lectured by your dentist, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2014-11-24
Packaged: 2018-02-26 19:40:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2663969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weareonceinalifetime/pseuds/weareonceinalifetime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam’s heart squeezes painfully, because that’s just so quintessentially Zayn. He’s out celebrating the completion of his big paper, and he’s thinking of how to make his youngest sister happy. It’s sweet and adorable and wonderful.</p>
<p>It’s why Liam’s in love with him.</p>
<p>The realization hits him like a punch in the gut, knocking the breath out of his lungs. All he can do is watch as Zayn pays for his turn on the ring toss and lines up his shot, his brow furrowed in concentration, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. The light catches the sharp edges of his profile, his eyelashes a dark sweep against his cheekbones.</p>
<p>Liam’s in love with him.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Or the one where I wrote the fluffiest fluff I could inspired by Liam's Night Changes teaser.</p>
            </blockquote>





	looking at you (seeing forever)

**Author's Note:**

> For Hayley, because I said I wanted to write the fic equivalent of an oversized sweater and she said "write something based on Liam's Night Changes teaser." Liam doesn't throw up on anything in this one, which I like to think is an improvement over the actual video.
> 
> Of course no Ziam-goes-to-the-fair fic is really complete without a nod to Lover Dearest, because while I tried very hard not to let that fic influence this one, it would be a lie to say I didn't keep thinking about it the whole time I was writing.
> 
> Enjoy!

Liam swears all he did was tap lightly on the front door of Zayn’s apartment, but the knock that echoes in the stairwell makes him jump as if it were a gunshot. He shoves his hands deep into the pockets of his coat, teeth worrying his bottom lip. This is a bad idea, probably. Definitely, actually. This is a terrible idea, and the fact that Louis had said it sounded good when he’d asked him about it should have tipped him off. This is going to be a disaster, and he’s going to embarrass himself, and he should just turn around and leave now.

“Liam!” Zayn says eagerly as soon as he opens the door, and Liam looks up and catches sight of him, all soft and rumpled with his hair messy and his glasses sitting slightly askew on his nose, and that’s it, he’s a goner. He won’t be able to walk away from this even if he tries. “Come in.”

“Actually,” Liam starts, shifting his weight from his left foot to his right nervously, “I was hoping you could come out.”

Zayn just looks at him, so Liam squares his shoulders and hurries on, the words tumbling out of his mouth and over each other. He wonders if Zayn can hear how anxious he is. “I mean, you finished your senior seminar paper, so I was thinking we could go celebrate. Or we could stay in. Whatever you want, because you’re the one who’s graduating, I just thought—“

“Liam,” Zayn interrupts, his voice bright with laughter, “of course I want to. Just give me a minute to change, yeah?”

  
Liam grins, following Zayn into the apartment and shutting the door behind him. Zayn disappears into the bedroom and Liam takes a seat on the couch, pulling his phone out of his pocket and fiddling around with it just to have something to do while he waits. There’s a text from Leigh-Anne asking if she can borrow his notes from their bio lecture, and three snapchats from Niall that he’s a bit afraid to open knowing Zayn could walk back into the room at any moment. Instead he opens up Instagram, scrolling through his feed a few times and liking Harry’s picture of a banana with googly eyes glued to it, captioned, “college art class”.

He’s hideously nervous, which is ridiculous because this is Zayn, his best friend, his favorite person in the whole entire world. This is no big deal, just a little best friend outing because in a few short weeks Zayn will be graduating early and moving out of his campus housing and into a real flat, and things will never be quite the same again. It’s fun, is all. It doesn’t have to mean anything, except for how Liam wants it to.

“Ready?” Zayn asks, reappearing. Liam stands to greet him, and suddenly he forgets to breathe.

Zayn is always frustratingly attractive. It’s just a fact about him, like the fact that he loves his sisters and can be vain about his hair and likes to sleep and doesn’t always follow every tenet of his religion perfectly but has more faith than anyone else Liam knows. He’s never seen Zayn look anything less than incredible, which is why he shouldn’t be so blown away by the sight of him in a simple dark coat and jeans and black boots. He’s styled his hair, leaving it mostly down but making it look less fluffy and more artfully tousled, and there’s a hint of stubble lining his sharp jaw.

“Yeah,” Liam manages to say, gesturing to his own faded jeans and tan coat. “Feeling a little underdressed now, but yeah.”

Zayn laughs, resting one hand lightly on Liam’s shoulder as he ushers him out the front door. “You look good, Liam. Always do.”

He’s sure his face is burning red, and he can feel the blood rushing to his face. “Thanks,” he mumbles, digging into his pocket for his car keys.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Zayn asks, locking the door behind him and turning to face Liam with a curious expression.

Liam shrugs. “Can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.”

 

 

Gravel crunches under the tires of Liam’s car as he pulls into a parking spot, and Zayn cranes his neck to look out the window suspiciously. “The fair? Really?”

Liam ducks his head, his heart sinking. He should have known better than to believe Louis when he’d said this was “guaranteed to work” and “totally foolproof, trust me Liam.” “Bad idea, right?” he says, laughing weakly. “We could catch a movie instead, or I can just take you home if you’d rather? 

“No,” Zayn protests, and Liam looks up when he feels Zayn’s hand on his arm. “I was just surprised, ‘s all. Haven’t been to the fair since I was a kid.”

“That’s sort of what I was thinking,” Liam admits softly, meeting Zayn’s eyes with a hesitant smile. “Like, you’ve been working so hard on your paper and everything, and it seemed like it would be nice to do something silly.”

Zayn’s answering smile is brilliant.

 

 

“Don’t,” Liam says as soon as Zayn reaches for his wallet at the ticket booth. “I’ve got it.”

“I shouldn’t let you,” Zayn argues weakly, but he lets Liam bat his hand away and pay for both of their tickets. “Thanks.”

“Consider it your graduation present,” Liam jokes, shoving his wallet into his back pocket. He steps back to let Zayn step through the turnstile first, inhaling shallowly when Zayn’s shoulder brushes against his chest and he catches the scent of his cologne, heady and musky and intoxicating. Zayn looks back at him with an eager grin, and Liam nearly trips in his haste to follow him.

“What do you want to do first?” he asks.

Zayn furrows his brow, thinking, and it takes actual effort for Liam not to let a fond smile spread across his face. “Look at the animals, maybe?”

“Animals it is.”

 

“I genuinely don’t believe that’s a chicken,” Liam says doubtfully, bending down to peer into the cage. The ball of feathers inside glares back at him, looking supremely unimpressed.

Zayn shrugs, his hair tickling Liam’s cheek as he joins him in staring at the _thing_. “The tag _says_ chicken.”

The “chicken” swivels its head to glare at Zayn, and Liam snorts. “Whatever it is, I don’t think it likes us.”

“I’m sure it likes you,” Zayn insists. “Maybe it’s just shy.”

“Yeah,” Liam says slowly. “I’m sure that’s it.”

He’s kind of thinking the chicken might actually be plotting his murder, but Zayn seems just as enamored of it as he’s been of every animal they’ve seen so far, and it’s incredibly endearing. A rabbit a few cages over has caught Zayn’s attention now, and he’s actually cooing at the thing, mumbling to it in a tone so low that Liam can’t make out what he’s saying. Before he can stop himself he hooks his chin over Zayn’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around his middle from behind.

“Are you and that bunny talking about me?”

At first Zayn jumps and Liam starts to back away, but then Zayn relaxes, leaning back against him, and his heart starts to thud harder against his ribcage.

“The bunny and I,” Zayn tells him, “are talking mad shit about you, bro.”

“Yeah? Like what?” He wants to tighten his grip on Zayn, has to fight the urge to nuzzle his face into his friend’s neck and press kisses to the spot just behind his ear. He can’t push his luck now though, not when they’ve still got the whole night ahead of him.

“That’s between me and the bunny.” Zayn gestures to the lop-ear in the cage.

“Have you _replaced_ me?” Liam teases, a note of mock horror in his voice.

Zayn twists in his arms, and suddenly he’s close, so close, too close. His nose is almost bumping against Liam’s when he says, “Nobody could replace you, Liam.”

Liam steps backward, loosening his arms and letting them drop from around Zayn’s waist. “Are you sure? Not even the bunny?”

“Not even the bunny,” Zayn says, and there’s something in his smile that Liam can’t quite place.

“So,” Liam asks. “What do you want to do next?”

 

“This is so good,” Zayn mumbles, taking another bite of his funnel cake. There’s a little bit of whipped cream stuck to one corner of his mouth, and before Liam thinks to stop himself he reaches out to wipe it away with his thumb. Zayn just looks at him, his expression soft, and Liam finds himself grinning back widely.

Then, like an idiot, he lifts his thumb to his mouth and licks off the whipped cream he’s just wiped off of Zayn’s face.

Just like that Zayn’s whole face changes, his gaze dropping to Liam’s mouth, his smile fading. Liam almost thinks he sees a hint of want there, but he’s too scared to let himself think like that, so he quickly wipes his thumb off on his jacket and clears his throat.

“We should play some games,” he suggests, his voice cracking a little.

Zayn nods. “Definitely.”

 

The midway is crowded, with kids running around and couples whispering in each other’s ears and teenagers yelling, and Liam can feel Zayn close behind him as he strides through the crush of people, searching for a game that seems promising. Finally, he spots a ring toss with an impressive array of stuffed animals, and he makes a beeline for it.

“You’ll play this, right?” he asks. He knows Zayn isn’t exactly confident in his own athletic ability, and he’d tried to pick a game that they’ll both enjoy.

“Sure.” Zayn squints at the stuffed animal prizes, then points to a particularly enormous bear with a red bow tie. “I’m trying for that one.”

“Trying to win me a bear, Malik?” Liam jokes, placing a hand on Zayn’s shoulder as they step up to the booth.

Zayn wrinkles his nose, the tip of his tongue poking out between his teeth as he chuckles. “Not for you. For Safaa.”

Liam’s heart squeezes painfully, because that’s just so quintessentially _Zayn_. He’s out celebrating the completion of his big paper, and he’s thinking of how to make his youngest sister happy. It’s sweet and adorable and wonderful.

It’s why Liam’s in love with him.

The realization hits him like a punch in the gut, knocking the breath out of his lungs. All he can do is watch as Zayn pays for his turn on the ring toss and lines up his shot, his brow furrowed in concentration, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. The light catches the sharp edges of his profile, his eyelashes a dark sweep against his cheekbones.

Liam’s in love with him.

“I suck at this,” Zayn laughs, haphazardly chucking his last ring and wincing when it misses by a mile. “So much for winning anything.”

“Let me try,” Liam suggests, pulling a bill out of his wallet and gesturing for the fair employee to give him his own set of rings. He pulls in a deep breath, steadying himself and trying not to think about the way Zayn is standing so close that he can feel his breath on the back of his neck. This is right up his alley. He can win a stuffed animal for Zayn, no problem.

“You can do it, Liam,” Zayn whispers just as Liam tosses the first ring, and he flinches, sending it ricocheting completely off course. The employee running the booth smirks.

“Again,” Zayn urges, resting one hand on each of Liam’s shoulders from behind. Liam bites down hard on the inside of his cheek and tries another toss. This one just brushes the edge of one of the pins, knocking it over but not settling around it.

“Last chance,” the employee says, handing Liam one more ring.

“No pressure,” Zayn says, his thin fingers kneading into Liam’s shoulders through his jacket. “Seriously, it’s a game.”

“I like to win,” Liam says, shrugging. Without allowing himself to think too much, he tosses the final ring, holding his breath as it settles around one of the pins, making it teeter but not fall over.

Both of them erupt into cheers, drawing glances from people around the midway and even coaxing a half-smile out of the guy running the booth. Zayn actually picks Liam up, squeezing him tight around the middle and lifting his feet off the ground, which is impressive considering how skinny Zayn is. By the time he puts him back down, they’re both breathless and giggling, and Liam has to take a moment before he can speak again.

“I’d like the bear, please,” he finally says, taking the huge stuffed animal from the fair employee and turning to present it to Zayn with a flourish. “For you. Or, I mean, for you to give to Safaa.”

Zayn absolutely _beams_ at Liam, his hand coming up to cup the back of Liam’s neck. The gesture is so affectionate Liam can hardly think, his entire world narrowing to Zayn’s touch on his skin and Zayn’s soft smile and Zayn’s eyes, ringed with long lashes. “You’re the best, Liam.”

It’s too much, Zayn’s too much, and Liam breaks the moment, pulling back and flashing the goofiest grin he can muster. “I know,” he jokes, and suddenly he can breathe again.

           

 

The sun has gone down by the time they finish working their way around the midway, eating a sort of disgusting amount of cotton candy and caramel apples. There’s a bite to the air that wasn’t there earlier, and Zayn is rubbing his hands together and huddling a little closer to Liam as they pause to buy popcorn.

“You’re cold,” Liam says, wrapping an arm around Zayn’s shoulders and pulling him into his side. Zayn is just the right size to fit beneath his arm, and Liam nuzzles his face in Zayn’s hair, inhaling the scent of his shampoo.

“’M fine,” Zayn insists, but he’s snuggling into Liam’s embrace, and Liam can feel him shivering lightly.

“No you’re not,” Liam laughs, unwrapping his scarf from around his own neck and carefully wrapping it around Zayn, adjusting the knot until it sits perfectly. He likes it a little too much, maybe, the way Zayn looks in his plaid scarf, his hair messy, his lips bitten red and chapped from the cold.

Liam wants so badly to kiss him.

“Come on,” he suggests instead, stepping away from Zayn. “We should go on some rides.”

Zayn balks, literally planting his feet and refusing to allow Liam to move him. “No way. I’m not going on those things.”

Right. Zayn hates roller coasters, and spinning chairs, and rides in general.

“Just the Ferris wheel?” Liam wheedles, reaching for Zayn’s hand and jutting his lip out in his best puppy-dog face. He’s not even sure it’ll work on Zayn, but it’s worth a shot. “Please?”

There’s a pause as Zayn thinks, and then he bites his lip. “Do I have to?”

Liam nods happily, tugging Zayn along after him as he heads for the Ferris wheel. He can see it, lit up in the night, and suddenly he wants nothing more than to sit beside Zayn on it, to share the view with him. “It’ll be fun, promise.”

“I doubt that,” Zayn grumbles, but he goes with Liam easily enough, keeping a loose hold around his fingers.

Liam’s never been happier in his life.

 

 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Zayn whines, pressing his shoulder against Liam’s as they wait in the line to get on the Ferris wheel. It’s bigger up close, and more fragile somehow, and while Liam’s not scared, he can almost see how Zayn is. They aren’t holding hands anymore, or he’d give Zayn’s fingers a comforting squeeze. Instead, he turns his head to look at him, their faces so close together that their noses are almost touching.

“We don’t have to go on it if you don’t want to.”

“But you want to,” Zayn says softly. “And you want me to go with you.”

Liam shrugs. “Yeah, I do, but if you don’t want to I don’t want you to do it just to make me happy.”

“Let’s do it,” Zayn tells him firmly, and it’s just a stupid ride at a fair and it shouldn’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things, but somehow it feels much bigger.

The line moves quickly, and before they know it they’re settling into one of the metal chairs, Zayn eyeing the whole thing warily like he thinks maybe it’ll fall apart right then and there. Liam stretches an arm comfortingly over his shoulders, pulling him in close and squeezing tight. It sounds lame to tell Zayn how lucky he feels to have him there, so he doesn’t say anything.

“Fuck,” Zayn mumbles, wriggling in the seat as the chair carries them closer to the top of the wheel. They’ve been inching up slowly by margins of a few feet while the ride fills, but now it’s full and they’re moving steadily—still not very fast, but apparently fast enough to make Zayn nervous.

“Maybe close your eyes if you’re nervous?” Liam suggests, feeling guilty. He hadn’t realized just how much Zayn hated heights, and he’s pretty sure that forcing him onto the ride anyway makes him the world’s biggest asshole.

Zayn shakes his head, taking a deep breath. “No, I should keep them open. It’s not very brave if I close my eyes the whole time, is it?”

“Sure it is,” Liam says. “You’re being brave just by coming up here with me at all.”

They’re nearly at the top of the Ferris wheel now, and when Liam glances over the edge of their chair he can see the whole fair spread out below them, bright and twinkling. It’s spectacular, and he wishes Zayn was relaxed enough to look at it too, but he can feel how tense he is next to him, and as they reach the top of the wheel, Liam does the only thing he can think of in the moment that might take his mind off of just how high up they are.

He leans over and catches Zayn’s lips with his own.

The kiss starts soft, just the gentlest brush of his lips against Zayn’s. It only takes a second for Zayn to begin kissing him back, still rigid in the seat beside him but with his face tilted toward Liam’s, and Liam tentatively raises a hand to touch his cheek. The kiss simmers, building until he pushes his tongue against the seam of Zayn’s mouth and Zayn hums eagerly against him, licking back into his mouth. He tastes like caramel apples and popcorn with just a hint of the cigarette he’d smoked earlier, and his stubble is rough against Liam’s lips, his hand resting gently on Liam’s wrist like he’s scared to hold on. Liam tightens the arm that’s around Zayn’s shoulders, hoping he can read in the action how important this moment is to him.

They’re still kissing when the wheel brings them back around to the top.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked it!
> 
> Inspiration for the kiss is, of course, Ryan and Marissa's iconic Ferris wheel kiss on The OC, because if we're doing fluff, might as well go all fucking out, right?
> 
> As always, you can find me on tumblr at liuhmpaynes.


End file.
